Works on Venice landing stages 'damaging artworks'

Works by a Venice water transportation company on its landing stages are threatening the integrity of important city artworks, an advisor to the Italian culture ministry said on Tuesday. Franco Miracco said in a statement that the replacement of the old piles on the Actv landing stages at the Venice Accademia are causing "a disaster of deafening noise and dangerous vibrations just a few steps away from the works conserved in the gallery". The advisor added that the intervention is "certainly damaging the works contained in the room of the former church of the Carita', namely in the Accademia galleries. The noise can be heard as far away as Campo S. Stefano, but of greatest concern are the vibrations caused by a technique in use in Venice since ancient times". "Today work could and should be carried out in ways and with precautions suitable to delicate monumental contexts" such as Venice, concluded Miracco. Actv said that no damage had been caused to surrounding buildings in the two-day construction project. And the objects inside the buildings are even less at risk," it said in a statement, adding that its methods were the least invasive possible.